Will not forget Uri, ready to fight 1,000-year war: Modi

Kozhikode: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday squarely targetted Pakistan, saying India will not forget the sacrifices of 18 soldiers killed in the Uri terror attack and will work to isolate Pakistan globally for exporting terror.

Addressing the BJP National Council meet here, Modi said that the Pakistan government was “misleading” its people on Kashmir.

He said Pakistani leaders had been talking of a “thousand years’ war” with India. “Let me tell you that there is a government in Delhi that accepts your challenge.”

However, he mellowed down the rhetoric, saying both countries should “fight the war”, but against poverty, unemployment and illiteracy — and “let’s see who wins”.

“The people of Pakistan should ask their rulers… PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) is with you, you can’t even manage that. Earlier, East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, was with you, you could not manage that. You are unable to manage PoK, Sindh, Gilgit- Baltistan and Balochistan, and you are talking of Kashmir… They are misleading you on Kashmir,” he said.

Modi said he wanted to remind the people of Pakistan that before Partition in 1947, their forefathers also considered this land as their own.

“I want to speak to the people of Pakistan. I want to remind them that before 1947 your forefathers too used to consider this country as your motherland, worship it. Keeping that in mind I want to ask a few things.”